I can honestly claim that before my friend told me that Cashmere Cat was performing for the Welcome Week concert, I had never heard of him. He has a unique and rather odd name that doesn’t suggest what kind of music he makes. When I heard the names Drake or Kendrick Lamar for the first time, I just had a feeling they were rap artists. But “˜Cashmere Cat’ is a rather mysterious and strange name.

To answer the question of who he is and what he’s made, I put his name into the beautiful search engine that is Google and slowly began to understand the backstory of this illusive man.

Cashmere Cat is from Halden, Norway, and just recently moved to Los Angeles to continue his ever-growing musical career. He has a rather large following on Soundcloud (392,645 followers, to be exact) and has produced for and been featured with some pretty big-name artists, including Kanye West, Selena Gomez, Ariana Grande, Jeremiah and Ed Sheeran, just to name a few.

He mainly worked in his hometown until he remixed Jeremiah’s song “733 Love.” It was an instant hit on Soundcloud. Jeremiah heard it and asked his producer to fly Cashmere Cat to Los Angeles to begin to work with him. Cashmere Cat’s surprising jump into the spotlight of the LA music scene has only helped his career, allowing him to work with important artists and continue to strive to add his unique sound to the music scene.

After learning about Cashmere Cat’s interesting beginning and the many big names he has worked with, I began to listen to his large array of music. I won’t claim to be a musical expert or say that everyone will love his music, but his songs all have an interesting and distinct quality to them. Each has a different sound, whether it be a flowing piano solo or a string section in the middle, and when you add the vocals of the multiple superstars he works with, it creates a refreshing and fun sound.

My personal favorite song is his remix of Miguel’s “Do You.” It starts out with some small, rhythmic bells and then goes into a slowly growing bass beat before finally adding the vocals. Another song I enjoyed was his remix of “Wolves,” a track from Kanye West’s latest album “The Life of Pablo.” Cashmere Cat made the beat and sent it to Kanye, from there Kanye sent him updates as the song was created. While Kanye’s newest album had its ups and downs, “Wolves” was a breath of fresh air, with a great beat and charismatic vocals that work together to create a solid hit.

3lau, last year’s Welcome Week concert headliner, was a DJ from Las Vegas who had a more mainstream sound. My experience at the concert was a mixed one. I liked the environment and enjoyed dancing and having a good time with others, but the music was lackluster at best. It seemed I had heard all of 3lau’s songs before. There was nothing different or strange, and the whole concert consisted of some vanilla sounds being blasted at insane speeds and painful volumes. Yet, when I’ve listened to Cashmere Cat, it’s been nothing like that. If this concert is anything like the last one, it should be a good time. Thankfully, it seems the musical talent has been upgraded to make the experience even better.

The best word to describe Cashmere Cat is “˜different.’ From his shy demeanor on stage, to his apparently friendly and open offstage persona, he is different from the normal sound, and that’s what makes him so sought after. I think when he comes to the Welcome Week concert, his unique nature, sound and obvious star attraction will all combine to create a really good time.